~2ft difference between title plan and plan in the leasehold at rear of property

We're in the process of moving house, however our buyers solicitor his raised an issue with the location of the fences at the back of the property, stating that they do not match the title plan.

I checked the lease, and the fences match the plan that's part of the lease perfectly. Comparing to the title plan, it appears there is a slight difference to the title plan - the title plan appears to include approximately 2ft more of land at the back. Since our house was built, another estate was built behind, and the developer erected a new fence (as part of the rear of the new homes gardens), and so there is approximately 2ft of land between our fences.

My reading online is that the lease is what matters here, and that title plans can be inaccurate. I've tried to argue this, but as far as the buyer is concerned, the title plan is what matters and we should move the fence.

I am not comfortable moving the fence because:

1. The title plan says at the bottom that it shows only general boundaries and may not be accurate
2. The plan in the lease perfectly matches the fences (the fences are original from when the property was built approx 12 years ago)
3. The Gov UK website says that for leasehold properties that the title plan must be read in conjunction with the lease
4. If the title plan was to be taken as accurate, the rear neighbour overlaps with our property

The buyer and their solicitor will not respond to these points, and only state that the fence is in the wrong place. Who is correct? Should I move the fence? Would there be any repurcussions? Is there anything more I can do to convince them if they won't respond to my points above?

An OS map (which appears to match the title plan is here:

https://explore.osmaps.com/pin?lat=53.27724&lon=-2.88754&zoom=18.0000&style=Standard&type=2d

A satellite image is here:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.2772082,-2.8875595,45m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDMxOS4yIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

A side-by-side of the lease plan (high quality probably exported from their source plans) and the title plan is attached.

Any help would be appreciated!

Danny T - neither the lease plan or title plans will be definitive re the precise position of the legal boundary. Whilst any issues re a mismatch re title/lease plan and reality on the ground should be flagged with the seller it's possible that there's a wider consideration to be made here based on what you have posted
Developers will often erect a new fence away from the existing one when developing a new site. They often do this to avoid any boundary disagreements with neighbours already in situ who then take umbrage to the development as a whole for example.
You state "Since our house was built, another estate was built behind, and the developer erected a new fence (as part of the rear of the new homes gardens), and so there is approximately 2ft of land between our fences." and that suggests that the developer may have done just that and erected a new fence and created a 2 ft gap from the existing and mapped boundary line to their 'new fence'
Obviously I can't be definitive/certain that is what has happened but worth discussing with the conveyancers involved.
If that's what is agreed then the second thing to discuss is should you move it? Not for us to advise on and you should rely on your conveyancer here - all I would say is that if the above is correct then you would be moving the boundary and including land not owned by you so you need to be mindful of how that works and any legal impact, especially as you are selling and moving on - perhaps more of a Q for the buyers to consider as a result 

Thanks for the quick response, Adam.

neither the lease plan or title plans will be definitive re the precise position of the legal boundary.

So what does define the legal boundary? My assumption was that the lease is our legal agreement with the freeholder, and therefore the plan included (and the fences errected by the freeholder that match them) is the actual definition of "our" land.

You state Since our house was built, another estate was built behind, and the developer erected a new fence (as part of the rear of the new homes gardens), and so there is approximately 2ft of land between our fences. and that suggests that the developer may have done just that and erected a new fence and created a 2 ft gap from the existing and mapped boundary line to their 'new fence'

My assumption was that they added this fence so that their homes had a nice new straight fence along the rear (because otherside, half of them would be a very old fence from the west side of ours), but leaving a gap to avoid any disagreements also sounds sensible.

But this also raises the question that if I remove the front fence (as they are demanding), it could wwll be that some part of it (even not all) is land belonging to the rear neighbour (even though it's outside of their fence) because without accurate maps of legal boundaries (and some way to reliably map them to physical points in the world that doesn't rely on assumptions about other peoples fences), it's not clear that the second fence (which they want as the boundary) could be in exactly the right place as the legal boundary either.

I feel like there are lots of reasons not to move the fence and few reasons to move the fence, and therefore I feel that if the buyer does not accept the fences are they are (which are the original fences, they match the lease plan, and they were the first fences out of the two), then we'll probably have to give up on this one (this issue has been running for months now and we've never gotten any closer to a solution).

Thanks!

Danny T - see PG 40 sup 3 for guidance re boundaries - HM Land Registry plans: boundaries (PG40s3) - GOV.UK
Your thought process is a realistic one but ultimately it comes down to your buyer/their conveyancer agreeing that your existing fence line is your registered/general boundary. 
The Q they will have asked themselves is does the existing fence line match what's on your title/lease plan? If it does then there's no issue re the extent being bought. And their Q is really about why there's a second fence line re the new development and you have the answer for that 
The key to their understanding will I suspect be an explanation around the history of the fencing and how nothing has changed re your own title/lease since registration.
It doesn't read as if this is an issue to be resolved by where the legal or exact boundary line is as that's not what's registered or defined - see PG 40 for guidance. To get that involved appears unnecessary based on the explanation you have already shared 

Thanks
 

The key to their understanding will I suspect be an explanation around the history of the fencing and how nothing has changed re your own title/lease since registration.

Unfortunately this didn't help - I've explained this multiple times but their view is that "Taylor Wimpey put the fence in the wrong place and somebody later has built a new fence in the correct place, so you should remove your fence and use their fence as the boundary or we will not proceed".

They're not prepared to remove the fence themselves after completion even though I've suggested this (not because I agree with it, but it seems like everyone would get what they want/believe is correct).

Unfortunately if there isn't an obvious easy legal answer to this, we'll just have to let it go. I don't have enough information to make me confident that removing the front fence and claiming that land could not have repercussions for us in the future (because for one, I can't be sure that the second fence perfectly matches what's shown on the title plan either without making some assumptions, and two, it's not clear to me how we could "claim" land outside of the (higher quality) plan included in the lease that we signed regardless, regardless of the title plan says).

Thanks for your help!
 

Danny T - so you are selling up and moving and they want you to remove your fence so the developer's one becomes the boundary line
If so and you are worried about repercussions then your conveyancer should advise as to what those might be, if any

so you are selling up and moving and they want you to remove your fence so the developer's one becomes the boundary line

They're the developer of another estate, and we're part-exchanging our property for one of theirs. They want us to remove the fence that was installed by our developer during the house build (Taylor Wimpey, around 12 years ago) and treat the newer fence that was added approximately 2ft further back by a different developer who built on the land behind us around 6(?) years ago as the boundary of our garden, before we complete.

That is, they want the boundaries at completion to match what they believe matches the title plan, rather than falling short (but matching the plan in the lease).
 

If so and you are worried about repercussions then your conveyancer should advise as to what those might be, if any

Thanks - I'll chat with them about this. My concern is that if it turns out I extended into someone elses land and then sold the property, that it could be considered that I misrepresented what was being sold. I would prefer not to go ahead than to have that possibility hanging over me, given that I can't guarantee that the second fence (installed later by the developer on the other side) perfectly falls along the indicated boundary without accurate measurements.

It turns out the developer has made the decision for us this morning and pulled out over our delays in removing the fence.

We'll probably stay here now, this can be a problem for the future (if any future buyer even cares about this seemingly minor difference).